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Gardening
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GARDENING In praise of kangaroo paws
ANGUS Stewart is possibly the bestknown plant breeder of Anigozanthos or kangaroo paws and it’s easy to see why gardeners in Australia here and, increasingly, overseas are fascinated with this Aussie plant.
A look at the intricate detail of the flowers shows why it is also a favourite of botanical artists and for floral art arrangements.
Kangaroo paws are a summer feature in the Botanic Gardens, but are they easy to grow? The simple answer is yes.
I will use the common name, kangaroo paws as the botanical name can be a tongue twister. They are classed as a strappy-leaved perennial with a rhizome root system similar to the tall, bearded iris.
Due in particular to Angus Stewart, there is an ever widening range of varieties and colours growing from 50 centimetres tall to 1.5 metres. Choosing a particular variety will depend on the size of the garden.
No garden? No worries: they can be grown in pots using the newer dwarf varieties.
Two essential points to successful growing are good drainage and preferably full sun, although they will tolerate some shade for part of the day. They die back in winter and, like hellebores, the old flower stalks and leaves can be cut back to ground level after flowering in the autumn. In addition, they are great for attracting birds to the garden.
WITH the ever decreasing size of suburban gardens, there is a constant demand for lowgrowing, evergreen, flowering shrubs.
Here are some of my favourites, which I have grown in our garden for more than 25 years – and I know they are tough.
As an example, Escallonias, originally from the Andean region of South America, have to be tough to survive there! Some grow to more than two metres, but here I am discussing the dwarf varieties such as red knight, which has glossy evergreen leaves and rich cerise flowers. It grows to 1.5 metres tall, although can be clipped after flowering to keep it to one metre as a low hedge. Similarly, pink pixie (also sold The oh-so-delicate blooms of kangaroo paws.
Escallonia red knight... for a dwarf hedge.
under the label of “Hedge with an Edge”), which grows naturally to only 80 centimetres.
Then there’s the large Osmanthus family, which grows to more than three metres. For smaller gardens, heaven sent’s tubular white fragrant flowers are set off against its dark green leaves. While this can grow up to 1.5 metres tall, I have kept ours as a dwarf hedge to just one metre tall and half a metre wide, growing in front of camellia sasanqua Sarah. Osmanthus Just how long will hellebores last in a vase? In the garden, in general, the flowers tend to hang down and yet, when placed in a vase, they rise up to show off. How long do they last as a cut flower? This vase of hellebores in our dining room (with ducted heating) is now well into its fourth week, with regular changes of water.
originates mainly in China, where the climate can range from drought to heat but certainly has no problem with our climate here.
Camellia sasanqua can be given a haircut now to encourage more flowers next year. I recommend up to a third off. This will not cause any harm and they start forming buds for next year’s flowers almost immediately.
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Archibald artist takes Einstein to the canvas
By Helen Musa WITH the forced delay of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW, Canberra painters have been using the time to put extra finishing touches to their work.
But later in September the winners will be announced and, around the country, artists are on tenterhooks.
To enter that most notorious of prizes, the Archibald, portraits should be of “men or women distinguished in art, letter, science or politics”, but over many years of covering Canberra entries into the prize, a parade of politicians, artists and writers, never before this year have I covered one dealing with a scientist.
John Lamb, of Deakin, retired architect, Masters Games enthusiast, Japan expert, landscape gardener and author, has good reason for being the exception. The subject of his mixed entry “Re-Conceptualising Relativity” is his own identical twin brother, an Oxford-trained physicist. Dr Peter Lamb, of Deakin University, has been busy making himself unpopular with his peers by reconceptualising Einstein’s theories of Special and Artist John Lamb… General Relativity into one challenging Einstein that removes the assumpwith “an image of tion of invisible dark matter intense vision”. in dark energy.
Yousuf Karsh’s famous 1948 portrait of Einstein… and John Lamb’s Archibald entry of his twin brother Peter, a physicist challenging Einstein’s theory.
Not an easy subject to capture you would think, background and the flames, which could represent our but John Lamb, the arty one among five scientific and recent bushfires, the burning ambition of a physicist medically-inclined brothers, has revisited his early years or, John likes to say: “the stake on which an enraged as a cub architect by returning to painting and has, scientific community would have him [Peter] burned.” provocatively, referenced Yousuf Karsh’s famous 1948 An extraordinary lifetime of cultural experiences has portrait of Einstein, held in the National Portrait Gallery. informed John’s painting. Halfway through a degree at
Lamb is adamant that his portrait is neither a copy nor Melbourne University he joined the then Department a different head on the same shoulders but one that chalof Works as a cadet, went on exchange to Japan, then lenges Einstein himself with an image of what he calls “an returned to Australia to do his honours while taking image of intense vision, almost a plea for understanding”. Japanese as an extra subject, with calligraphy thrown in.
To him, the painting’s background is full of signifiHe got one of the famous Monbusho scholarships cance, with both the Southern Cross and the Seven offered by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sisters of Pleiades a tribute to country, the centre Sports, Science and Technology, headed to Waseda showing the California nebula cutting through the University in Tokyo and bumbled through whatever lectures he could understand while getting his language up to speed. He extended his masters to a third year, met his wife Naoko and married there.
Back in Australia, there were stints in Perth and Melbourne, then the department took him to Canberra for the design of ADFA. Lamb found it wanting from the low-energy point of view, which was his area of expertise, but made Canberra his home.
Always incorporating his artistic inclinations in architectural presentations, he became principal project officer to the Joint House Department which had oversight of the new Parliament House. He was for a time the CEO of “Life Be in It” and then joined the Ebara Corporation engineering company in Kobe, keen for his children to gain some knowledge of their heritage.
Back in Australia he felt like a fish out of water, so took out a Dip.Ed. at the University of Canberra, ran a Kumon learning centre, taught Japanese at Narrabundah College and Orana school and led groups on trips to Japan.
Setting himself the challenge of capturing his brother’s high-energy, querying mind, John took to painting again.
Peter proved a testy subject, showing no confidence in his brother’s ability to sketch, so it was a slow process until John hit on the idea of the Einstein pose, which he sees as “a visual quip”.
He adjusted the height of the hand to make it “almost a prayer”, not the relaxed confidence of the Einstein picture, but rather a way of saying to the scientific community: “Are you listening to me?”
“We reckon he’s on to something,” he says of Peter’s controversial research.
The finalists in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW will be announced on September 17 and the winners on September 25.
